Catch the Lightning: A Novel of the Skolian Empire

I almost didn't buy this one. I read primary inversion which was GREAT and then looked at the reviews on this one and thought....maybe Asaro had a spark when she started and just lost it. Not so. Catch the lightning in my humble opinion was just as good as primary inversion. I'm actually surprised at a lot of the things that other readers found unbelievable and/or predictable. Sure, a tough teenage teen should CERTAINLY, CERTAINLY, know better than to take a huge (6'4 all muscle) dangerous looking man home with her. However I thought that was all explained away nicely by their (Rhons) genetic makeup, the pheremone thing and the fact that well...if all teens did what they knew to be best we parents would have a much easier job! I also found it interesting that other readers thought our heroines reactions too blase'. I found her rapid acceptance of her wildly changing circumstances very realistic considering her background. Growing up as a poor illegal mestizo girl on the streets of gang-infested and crack ridden LA would leave one a tad jaded and quite....adaptable. I did find the age gap between the leads a little disturbing but it's fiction. I assume no actual minors were seduced in the making of this novel (smile). The sex was NOT even close to porn! I was nervous about that too after reading the reviews here! I'll read pretty racy stuff (ex. Kushiels Dart ---highly reccomended) but I need a reason for it and a plot. I'm not into gratuitous sex. When you get to the condom bit it will all make sense. One would have to teach an alien how to use a condom. Perhaps other's found the science behind the novel annoying or a bit daunting. As a scientist myself I really enjoved the explaination of the Rhon genetics and was totally lost by the physics explanations but I was still quite impressed by the concepts. Also I am surprised at the readers who did not care about any of the characters! I really loved the protaganist (Maya). The way she saw things was fresh and interesting. She had an interesting mix of vulnerability, street savvy and endurance that endeared her to me. I also liked her Cal tech friends. And who says a couple brilliant Cal tech students couldn't crack security at a military base!? Stranger things have been known to happen. So in summary...read primary inversion first as everyone seems to agree on its literary merit....if you like that give this one a shot it's really quite good!

Must Read! Catch the Lightning flings us to an alternate universe Earth in 1987. The LA scenes are chilling, gang warfare, drug-related murders, the day-to-day hopelessness of growing up in the inner city. Then we flash forward (using inversion theory) to the Skolian Empire, to a time beyond events in Primary Inversion and the Radiant Seas, to a finale sprinkled with grayed characters we knew and loved in their youth. Catch the Lightning works as a powerful love story. You have to love people named Akushtina Santis Pulivok, and Althor Vyan Selei kya Skolia. I understand why Catherine Asaro's books cross genre boundaries to appeal to the romance market with pages like 44-50, 103-105 and (oooh--hot, hot!) 356--but how does the general romance reader deal with quantum mechanics, introns, inversion theory, time paradoxes, imaginary transforms and, for crying out loud, Hilbert space? "'Riemann sheet,' Heather said. 'It's a mathematical representation designed to make multivalued complex quantities into single-valued functions.'" The steep language obviously didn't bother romance readers who awarded this book the coveted Under the Covers Award and the Sapphire Award. Catch the Lightning is a delightfully sexy romp through a grad level physics book.

Ahhh, what a satisfying book. If only everything I read were this good, well, I'd probably never get anything done! This is the second book in Catherine Asaro's Skolian Empire Saga and is also another not-to-be missed read for hard-core scifi fans and romance readers looking for a well-written futuristic love story. Ms. Asaro has created another extraordinary heroine and hero while maintaining a non-stop action filled read. I now know why these books appeal to so many different types of readers - there's adventure, romance, political intrigue and interesting future societies and theories that boggle the mind. The best thing about this book for me was the characters. If I can't care about them I just won't be able to get into a book, no matter how interesting others may find it. The author takes as much care developing her characters as she does her plot which makes this book so special. Tina may only be seventeen but she was forced to grow up early and her actions, and responses to the unbelievable situations she's thrust into are very realistic. She's vulnerable and tough, smart and easy to like. Althor is a perfect match for her, he's strong, sensitive and moody and with her strong empathic abilities she's probably the only one who would be able to fully understand and love him. My only complaint, and it's a minor one really, that can probably be attributed to the fact that I don't read much hard scifi, is that sometimes the book lapsed into long technical explanations that jogged me out of the story and because I read this book immediately after finishing PRIMARY INVERSION some of the explanations didn't seem necessary to me so I skimmed them. Despite that nit I can't recommend this one highly enough. The characterization is flawless - you'll love and route for these people as they face impossible odds.

Catch The Lightning is one of those books you just can't put down! The characters are so real and the story so compelling that when I got to the end of the book, I was looking for more! How often does an author come along who can enthrall the often deadly-critical science fiction readers with a universe that is most likely not only possible, but makes you want to live there and struggle side by side with its characters? Another thing that makes Catherine's book both unique and enticing is the realistic detail and emotional display of the characters. I would have to say that if -I- met a strange, gorgeous man on the street who 1) saved me from being raped (possibly killed), 2) who could feel my thoughts / emotions AND 3) was SENSITIVE to them...I'd go for him! :) Truely, Asaro is one of the best science fiction authors of this century and I hope to learn more and more about the Skolian Empire and it's people from her. Also, I think that her content and writing style could become a cornerstone to future science fiction...not only interesting those of us intrigued by futuristic societies, space travel, technology, etc...but those interested in adventure, mystery, and good old fashion romance. I give Catherine an ecstatic two thumbs up and on a scale of 1-10, a 10+! p.s. I was just as thrilled by Primary Inversion as well! :)

This book is a gem. Exciting and imaginative. I couldn't put it down. It was at first a surprise to be reading a story told first person by a woman, but the character, Tina, compelled my interest. She is a far cry from the plastic dolls that fill in as love objects in some fiction. Her husband, Althor, is believable too, a hero in the real sense of the word, a man who faces problems in his life and overcomes them. Although this is a hard science fiction book, the style of the writing sometimes feels like that of Latin American writers who do magic realism. I wasn't surprised to read in the cover blurbs that Asaro is a scientist; that comes through, most of all in the physics and genetics. Some chapters take place in space habitats, which are done with realism. The scenes describing the approach to the habitats make you want to go there. The world building also piqued my interest. The detail is enormous and if anything Asaro tries to do too much. She has enough to fill many books. Another reason to read this book is the love story. Asaro isn't afraid to show genuine love between her characters. The scenes are tasteful, but also sensual, a refreshingly mature treatment. The combination of hard science and love story caught me by surprise, but it works. I hope Asaro continues in this vein, as there is no one else who seems to do it, except Ursula Le Guin.